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<p class="title"><b>BlenderFDS</b> Readme</p>
<p class="body">
<i>Copyright (C) 2013 Emanuele Gissi, http://www.blenderfds.org</i><br>
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.<br>
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see included license file for details.
</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">About</p>
<p class="body">Welcome to BlenderFDS, the free, open source graphical interface for <a href="http://fire.nist.gov/fds/">NIST FDS</a>.</p>
<p class="body">NIST FDS is a computational fluid dynamics model of fire-driven fluid flow. The software solves numerically a form of the Navier-Stokes equations appropriate for low-speed, thermally-driven flow, with an emphasis on smoke and heat transport from fires. BlenderFDS effort is completely unrelated and independent from FDS development performed at NIST and other organizations. None of these organizations finance, support, endorse, or otherwise recommend BlenderFDS.</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS is based on <a href="http://www.blender.org/">Blender</a>, an open source 3D content creation suite. Blender is a complex platform: as with all 3D packages, the learning curve is steep and the average user needs some time to become productive.</p>
<p class="body"> BlenderFDS is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows and has a world-wide community. BlenderFDS can be used freely for any purpose, including commercial use and distribution. It's free and open-source software, released under the GNU GPL licence. The entire source code is available on our website.</p>
<p class="body">For more information, visit <a href="http://www.blenderfds.org">blenderfds.org</a>.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">Bugs</p>
<p class="body">Although BlenderFDS is considered stable, you may encounter a bug. If you do, please help us by posting it in the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/issues/list">bug tracker</a>. If it wasn’t reported yet, please log in (or register) and fill in detailed information about the error. Please post detailed instructions on how to reproduce it or post a .blend or .fds file showcasing the bug.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">Package Contents</p>
<p class="body">The downloaded BlenderFDS package includes:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>The BlenderFDS application to be installed as a Blender addon.</li>
	<li>Readme and copyright files.</li>
</ul>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">Installation</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS is built upon the new Blender 2.6x platform. First install Blender, then install BlenderFDS as an add-on.</p>
<p class="body">Addons can be installed from the user preferences addons section: press the "Install Addon" button and select the downloaded blenderfds.zip package to install it.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">Getting Started</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS is a powerful and flexible tool, but it does not teach you neither how to use FDS nor how to perform a CFD simulation. Using BlenderFDS, the user retains the full control over the exported FDS input file; thus a prerequisite is that the user should know how to write by hand an FDS input file...</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS is based on Blender. You do not need to be a Blender power user to use BlenderFDS, but it is much better if you are already familiar with its particular interface and able to build simple architectural models.</p>
<p class="body">For more information on how to use BlenderFDS, <a href="http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/wiki/Home?tm=6">read the wiki manual</a>.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">Links</p>
<p class="body">
<ul class="a">
	<li>General information: <a href="http://www.blenderfds.org">http://www.blenderfds.org</a></li>
	<li>Discussion Group: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/blenderfds">http://groups.google.com/group/blenderfds</a></li>
	<li>Downloads: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/downloads">http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/downloads</a></li>
    <li>Documentation: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/wiki/Home">http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/wiki/Home</a></li>
    <li>Bug Tracker: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/issues/list">http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/issues/list</a></li>
</ul>


<p class="footer">BlenderFDS is open-source and free for all to use.<br>Enjoy.</p>
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